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QuoteThere were two knock-ons that were deliberate and we didn't get a penalty.
As soon as we saw Tempo (Ian Tempest) was refereeing we knew it was going to be a difficult day.
We looked at the refereeing quartet and knew they would be influenced very heavily by the Leicester crowd

Not a great look, and certainly not something that should be aired in public, even more so after you have only scored 3 pts yet conceded 30 in the match!

Aye pretty extreme, but he is right regarding the knock ons, we should have had a scrum 50 off metres back near tigs 22 off one... instead they went on to score a try... we where awful, flat and lacked accuracy. Tempest made one or 2 errors, that does not excuse us to shipping 5 tries and scoring none.

The comments have been mentioned on another thread and not highly thought of. I think these will come back to haunt Dean perhaps in the form of bringing the game in to disrepute and won't have done the team any favours in future games if refs think that no matter how they perform they are thought of as capable of being influenced by a home crowd. Clearly this should have been a case of " engaging brain before opening mouth"

He's basically doubting the integrity of an official. I've moaned about this on another thread already, this does no one at the club any favours, not least us the next time we get Tempest to referee; if I were him I'd give us nowt next game.

Richard's comments about referees over the last few tears are tedious in the extreme but this is a new low. If this had been Diamond we'd be apoplectic with rage.

Sadly he has turned himself into the Neil Warnock of rugby with his default position of let's whinge about the referee. If nothing else he must think we're stupid if he thinks we agree and lose because of the referee's calls.

Dean, please, if you can't speak without moaning about the referee and even worse, doubting their impartiality, please say nothing.

Richards should be more concerned about his team's inability to deliver performances consistently than indulge in boorish behaviour questioning the integrity of referees.

We all comment about refereeing decisions, which they can get wrong as players can make mistakes, but it is the manner in which Richards expresses his thoughts on referees which reflects badly on our club as he is the highest profile employee of the Falcons and should be above the level of his comments.

Ok, cannot say I agree with the masses. Are we really suggesting that no matter how bad decisions are they should just be accepted? When the video ref was asked to look at the Genge incident he initially said that Genge dropped the ball accidentally and when asked to comment about the straight arm to the head he claimed he had not seen it, even though it was replayed for all to see as his words came out.
Tempest pinged the first scrum, he was quick off the mark at rucks and mauls and a lot of decisions he gave Leicesters way in truth could have gone either way.
Should Richards have said what he did? He is a big boy at the helm of the club. If he said that then he will have had his reasons and it is upto him to justify without all the oh so easily offended brigade having their twopence worth

DaveybOk, cannot say I agree with the masses. Are we really suggesting that no matter how bad decisions are they should just be accepted? When the video ref was asked to look at the Genge incident he initially said that Genge dropped the ball accidentally and when asked to comment about the straight arm to the head he claimed he had not seen it, even though it was replayed for all to see as his words came out.
Tempest pinged the first scrum, he was quick off the mark at rucks and mauls and a lot of decisions he gave Leicesters way in truth could have gone either way.
Should Richards have said what he did? He is a big boy at the helm of the club. If he said that then he will have had his reasons and it is upto him to justify without all the oh so easily offended brigade having their twopence 4worth

100% agree. Equally sick and tired of the oh so easily offended brigade. Tempest has always been anti Falcons, verging on the deliberately deceitful or even cheating. But we are expected to put up with it because we aren't so good at cheating. Something has to be done and if this is the way to raise it then so be it.

Before anyone tries to say it, in no way was the incompetent, biased numpty responsible for our loss - we were equally incompetent yesterday.

At the risk of sounding like I've paid my subs to the oh so easily offended brigade, there's a world apart from having a moan about the odd decision that may have gone against you to basically doubting the impartiality and ergo the integrity of a referee. To me he has overstepped the mark.

Well I may be in a minority of one but I'm pleased he's said it - I think the officials get too easy a ride over their decision-making and I'm pleased he's brought it out into the open. The decision in the Sarries v Northants game when the TMO said he wasn't sure a pro player would have caught a ball he was standing under is farcical - it was explained away by saying it wasn't as straightforward as it looks. If those are Deano's honest opinions he's entitled to air them IMHO and good on him

Bedlington LadWell I may be in a minority of one but I'm pleased he's said it - I think the officials get too easy a ride over their decision-making and I'm pleased he's brought it out into the open. The decision in the Sarries v Northants game when the TMO said he wasn't sure a pro player would have caught a ball he was standing under is farcical - it was explained away by saying it wasn't as straightforward as it looks. If those are Deano's honest opinions he's entitled to air them IMHO and good on him

The only farcical bit of that is that he thought that mattered at all. Foden has played the ball so Brits is well within his rights to tackle him. Only real debate is whether Foden knocks it on or it goes backwards, and even then if the ref has blown his whistle Sarries were last in possession so would have got the scrum anyway.

100% agree. Equally sick and tired of the oh so easily offended brigade. Tempest has always been anti Falcons, verging on the deliberately deceitful or even cheating. But we are expected to put up with it because we aren't so good at cheating. Something has to be done and if this is the way to raise it then so be it.

Davey - I've no problem with Richards writing to the RFU about what he thinks about the ref, but he shouldn't be saying it in public.

Worse still, he seems to be suggesting there was a negative feeling within the club before the game about the referee - if that got to the players, it creates a defeatist attitude and causes problems before kick-off. No responsible manager should allow that.

What Richards said about his own team was fair enough. What he said about the officials wasn't fair and even if it was fair it should not have been said in public. Don't think there's any evidence that Tempest is biased for or against anyone. He was the ref when the Falcons beat Quins at KP this season.

Leipy, I stand by my point. We are all keyboard warriors to one degree or another. We all have a point of view and the nice thing is we can all be right. It takes a court of law to decide if sone is wrong to not. DR has played rugby, representative rugby, coached at the highest level. If he makes those comments only time will tell if he is foolish or not. I am presuming, since every game is analysed that they must have some substance to back the claims up...let us wait and see

Having read Deanos post match summary I personally feel that he is spot on with what he says.

Our set piece was woeful and when we had opportunities we messed them up.
We didn't get parity with some referring decisions (home teams usually get the 50-50 or even the 60-40 especially if there's 20k fans Influencing your decision making)
We were poor today....fine last week....and we are just a bit inconsistent.

I think he's absolutely right there and it is an honest and fair summary!

Inconsistency is our biggest problem.

We are either pretty good or absolutely awful....there's no in between.

Dean Richard's public comments are very wrong. They reflect poorly on his judgement and the club. If he feels so strongly about the officiating even before a whistle has been blown he could make the authorities aware via private channels.

That he should blame everybody in sight except himself for a woeful display does not come as a surprise after four seasons of inconsistency and false dawns.

Cantabrian
That he should blame everybody in sight except himself for a woeful display does not come as a surprise after four seasons of inconsistency and false dawns.[/quote

By your comments then, are you suggesting that the battle plan for the day, playing a special back 3, was to go out and on purpose, make mistake after mistake? Once the whistle blows, the coach steps back and the players step up.....or not

We really need to wait until next season to judge whether the Falcons really can establish themselves in mid-table. At present they owe their improved position to 4 narrow wins against Northampton and Gloucester teams playing well below their potential. Without those, the Falcons would be battling for 11th as per.

alasWe really need to wait until next season to judge whether the Falcons really can establish themselves in mid-table. At present they owe their improved position to 4 narrow wins against Northampton and Gloucester teams playing well below their potential. Without those, the Falcons would be battling for 11th as per.

Agreed, mind you Gloucester have been performing below parr for 5 year if you put it in that sense... until they start actually showing their potential they are no better than us...

If you where to base the aviva Premiership table on every clubs last 5 results, Newcastle would be 12th with only 4 points... shows we aren't playing well at all and are conceding a mammoth amount of points when ever we go away from KP!

Wins are wins though alas.....you could flip your comment and say if we had won those games that we lost by a point or two (worcs, Wasps, Tigers spring to mind) we would have been really looking at potentially a top six finish.

I don't buy this if, buts and maybe scenario stuff...we are the 9th best team at present on merit. Whether we remain 9th we will have to wait and see.

There's no doubt in my mind that we have once again improved on last season so progress is being made.

There have been many improvements on and off the pitch with Semore Kurdi and Mick Hogan leading the way. Also earlier this season we played some great rugby and it looked like we were finally on our way. However since the New Year we seem to have started misfiring again.

In recent seasons we have struggled to beat Worcester but fingers crossed we will put them away next Friday week. I'm sure Gary Gold will have the Warriors fired up for their visit to KP and a last home win against an improving 11th placed side will be a positive end to our home campaign.

While not condoning Dean's outburst, the one thing I will say to those critical is: how do you know that he hasn't time and again made his concerns about certain referees impartiality known to the authorities to no clear change?

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